Matt Archer: Monster Summer

Matt Archer: Monster Summer Part 2

Part Two

 “Archer, wake up,” Schmitz said.

I cracked open an eye. The tent walls were bathed in a thin, weak light. “Dawn already?”

“Yeah,” Schmitz said, giving me a little shake. “Major Tannen wants to see you ASAP. The advance team didn’t make it in last night. He’s organizing a search.”

Groaning, I sat up. My back muscles had loosened up while I slept; now I just felt like I’d been in a bus crash instead of bent like a pretzel. “I’ll be right there.”

After Schmitz disappeared through the tent flap, Will asked, “Think we’re going?”

“Why wake us up if we’re not?” I pulled on my boots. “You feeling up to this after yesterday?”

Will shrugged. “It was just an attempted strangling…nothing serious. I’m good to go.”

“Oh, yeah…nothing serious,” I said, shaking my head. “Well, then, let’s go see what the plan is.”

 We hurried to the command tent, Will buttoning his jacket as we jogged across camp. The morning was cool and I could see puffs of steam when I exhaled. Even though most of the team was already up and about, camp was quiet, but tense, and more than one soldier watched us duck inside HQ.

Uncle Mike looked like he hadn’t slept all night. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and a giant cup of coffee steamed on the table in front of him.

He motioned for us to take a seat as Schmitz slipped into the tent. “Sir, I have a small team assembled as requested.”

“Thanks, Master Sergeant,” Mike answered. “Go tell them to be ready to roll in ten.”

Schmitz nodded and ducked outside. Uncle Mike turned to me. “So, I guess you know Captain Hunter’s team didn’t show up.”

“Yes, sir,” Will and I said.

“Okay—we’re going after them,” Uncle Mike said. “Based on the coordinates from yesterday, there’s nothing but desert in the search grid, so unless the earth swallowed them up, we should be able to find them.”

I didn’t point out that it was entirely possible that the earth had swallowed them up. We weren’t dealing with your typical human enemy; the other side had unusual skills. The worry-creases on Mike’s forehead kept me from saying that out loud, though.

“Going after them may not be the smartest thing to do,” Uncle Mike continued, “because my gut feeling is that the remaining Dingoes are holding them somewhere, trying to lure us out.”

So we were going to play right into their hands. Well, that was one way to go. I wasn’t sure how smart it was, either, but we didn’t have too many options out here. “What’s the plan?”

“Two six-man teams. Blue team will travel out in the open, heading directly to the hot spot.” Uncle Mike’s eyes hardened into the Major Tannen Stare. Will and I sat up straighter; that look meant we were about to be tasked with something hard. “I’ll lead red team—the two of you, Schmitz and two back-ups. We’ll drive out to a series of buttes not fair from the rally point and go on foot from there. We’ll use the terrain for cover and hopefully surprise whatever crawls out from under the rocks to challenge the blue team.”

I turned to Will. A smirk was already spreading across his face. A similar smiled tugged at my mouth. Yeah, we were up for something stupid and dangerous. We always were.

“Sir, yes sir,” I said. “Let’s go give some Dingoes hell, sir.”

*****

Twenty minutes later, we were speeding along the desert floor. Even though the ride was rough enough to bounce me out of my seat, Schmitz pushed the Humvee hard. We had to be doing at least fifty; scrubby brush, red sand and rock formations blurred together as we flew toward our destination. You had to hand it to the people who made Humvees; any other vehicle would’ve had four flat tires and a bent axle—or two—with this kind of abuse. Instead it motored on unfazed, while giving most of its passengers bruises.